Deep water oil developments often require the use of artificial lift. Subsea boosting technologies provides robust performance, and the installed base of subsea boosting pumps is steadily increasing. The need for better understanding of how more cost-efficient systems can be designed and operated has led to the development of improved operational design methodologies that also can be transferred to online advisory systems. By investigating the interaction of parameters in the full system and identify which key parameters to monitor it is possible to make a less conservative design, hence both investment and operational costs are reduced. Use of an online flow advisory system including all physical parameters relevant for the subsea boosting station will enable further optimization of the production and equipment utilization during life-of field.

Specific examples will be presented. By designing the system with temperature monitoring, requirements for insulation and preservation can be reduced. By designing the system to operate at best efficiency, requirement for power and performance can be reduced. Hence, significant cost savings are obtained, while robustness and safety remain.